Ziggy’s Gift (Holiday Animation)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Main Program: C+
Every comic book and cartoon character eventually has a
Christmas special or some equivalent, even when they are forgotten. Cable has revived almost all of them,
including one with Pac-Man. Now, BFS
Entertainment has issued one of the best ones that has been lost and forgotten,
Ziggy’s Gift. Though it runs 24
minutes, it is not bad, won an Emmy in its time and has a song by the late
great Harry Nilsson that includes his vocal.
Ziggy has been a popular pop culture figure for years, but
has faded from the scene a bit in recent years. The peak was in the mid-1980s and the character is long overdue
for a comeback. Living a simple
existence with his dog Fuzz, but he becomes incensed about the lack of charity
for the season and the Christmas Spirit in general fading and decides to do
something about it. So out they go into
the snow so Ziggy can sign up for Santa duty, even bringing a sled. However, it becomes much more as his
heartfelt ambition touches more lives than he ever expected.
Though the program runs only 24 minutes, it is very
charming and is often silent, yet effective.
For all the bad and pretentious holiday programming, this one is more
subtly clever than even I remembered and maybe its authenticity was considered
an affront to both the politically correct Left and hijacking extremists on the
Right. Either way, the timing of Ziggy’s
Gift could not be better and holds up strikingly well all these years
later. Ziggy lives!
The 1.33 x 1 image is in very good shape, with color
consistency and clarity as good as most animated children’s titles we have seen
to date. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is
also fine and clear for its age, making repeat playback pleasant enough,
including the Nilsson song. Extras
include about 7 minutes of shorts made in 1983 as gags for children’s TV
featuring Ziggy, the character inserted into art classics, panels from the
comic strip and text about creator Tom Wilson.
- Nicholas Sheffo
